South Korea is drafting a bill to make Internet portal sites liable for damages by consumers on the blogshops and online retail sites hosted by them, amid rising complaints and loss of taxes.

More countries are tightening e-commerce regulations.

The country's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) is preparing to propose and amendment to the e-commerce laws to make portal owners liable for their vendors' activities, according to a JoongAng Daily report over the weekend. Online shopping sites are subject to certain consumer laws but portal operators, like Naver and Daum, are currently exempted.

Transactions on blogshops are typically not regulated, and hence not taxed. As receipts are usually not issued, this also makes refunds or exchanges relatively more difficult and also raises the risk of fraud.

"As the reputation and influence of the portal sites play big parts when consumers purchase online, the purpose of the amendment is to put certain responsibilities on these portals where transactions take place," said an academic who participated in the discussion for the amendment, according to the newsdaily.

The number of consumer complaints filed to the FTC increased from 615 in 2011 to 720 last year, noted the report. Customers largely complained about being unable to contact merchants after remitting payments, or merchants refusing to accept returns of defective items.

Loves caption contests, leisurely strolls along supermarket aisles and watching How It's Made. Ryan has covered finance, politics, tech and sports for TV, radio and print. He is also co-author of best seller "Profit from the Panic". Ryan is an editor at ZDNet's Asia/Singapore office.